DJ's up to scratch

One of the best hip-hop DJs in the world lives in Auckland. P-Money talks to STEPHEN JEWELL about his multimedia career and how he spins new sounds from old vinyl.


So, P-Money, New Zealand reigning hip-hop DJ champ and highly ranked international turntablist, what exactly is it that you do?

"It's so difficult, putting it into words," says the Papakura-bred star of the decks who was christened Pete Wadams.

"It's a question I get asked quite often and the best way to explain is to show them what I do by scratching in front of them. 'Oh, okay. You're grabbing a record and turning the sound on and off which creates a new sound'.

"Then there's a whole bunch of other things that you can do with beats. You grab two records and play a pattern from one side and then another pattern from the other side. You continually do that to create a new pattern. It's like sampling music.

"A lot of producers will create a new track by sampling little pieces of other tracks. Take a bit of a drum loop here, and a bassline from there, and put them together on your computer. It's like cut and paste except I do all that in real time, using a physical record. Instead of grabbing a piece of audio that's a visual representation on screen, it's a physical piece of vinyl.

"I rearrange the whole thing, like a collage. Hopefully, it will all make sense and it will be like a big composition which has rhythm, some melody and is something people can understand as music."

Well, at least local hip-hop fans, who regard P-Money as a star in his own right, understand it. So do competition judges. Last month, after winning the national DMC (Disco Mix Competition) Finals and his third straight win in the New Zealand ITF (International Turntablist Federation) - a contest which pitches DJs in a head-to-head scratch-off - Wadams jetted off to London to represent New Zealand in the DMC World Finals. He came third equal.

"First up was the New Zealand DMC Final and I thought I'd have a go at this. I didn't think I was that well prepared because I'd been working on my album. But I got my set together, went and did it and I won. The following week was the ITF and I thought, 'Oh, god. I've still got the album to do, I've got a TV show starting and I've got no time to prepare. I decided, I'd just do it and see what happens, and I won that as well. So I thought, 'I can't be too bad at this'."

Wadams first discovered hip-hop and DJ battling as a teenager growing up in Papakura, and became a fan of scratching through listening to DJs like Jazzy Jeff and DJ Skratch from EPMD.

He recalls his first stylus-blunting session at age 11. "I was over at a friend's house. He was a couple of years older than me and had started scratching on his sister's stereo. I went home and did it on my Dad's stereo. It was a very crude scratch that I attempted to do but I just liked the noise. Three years later, I got hold of a turntable of my own and from there kept progressing."

Wadams has described DJs as the nerds of hip-hop, possibly for their boffin-like dedication to technical intricacies. He first entered the ITF in 1997, aged 19, and placed fourth - it was the first time he had played in front of a crowd. The next year he ranked first in the northern region eliminations, but lost in the first round of the final.

"I didn't think it was a fair decision at the time, but it taught me a few lessons. Not to think I was such a hotshot. I thought I was going to win the whole thing. It actually served to make me a better DJ. I went home and practised as much as I could so that when I won it, it would be a certain victory."

Which is exactly what Wadams did in 1999, beginning a three-year winning streak which will only be interrupted by his withdrawal from next year's ITF. "I'm taking a rest. I don't like the word 'retired'. I'm only 23. I'm not ready to retire yet, but I'll focus more on the DMC and my other obligations."

Wadams prefers the more aggressive, one-on-one ITF format to the DMC's showcase style. However, after surprising even himself with his third placing in London, which bettered his previous international best, fifth at the 1999 ITF World Final, Wadams changed his mind.

"I feel after my experience with the DMC that I am more suited to that. I always preferred the ITF battle format, but I've always done well with one set kind of things. I rocked my set in the DMC finals and achieved everything I'd set out to achieve. I was in the final and was going to be on the video. I did my set, totally comfortable and not really worried about where I came as long as I did a good show. I walked off stage afterwards, really happy. That's cool, I might get fifth, and then I got third equal."

Wadams points out that watching a DJ battle is a more visual and dramatic experience than catching your average club DJ. "There's a big visual element in a DJ battle scenario. A lot of DJs who compete overlook that element. You have to have a stage presence. People might not understand what you're doing unless you're almost pointing it out."

Is it difficult performing somewhere like last month's national ITF Final, which was held at the Auckland Town Hall as part of the Aotearoa Hip-Hop Summit in front of a sellout, 2000-strong crowd?

"It's not so bad when there's huge screens", says Wadams. "You'll notice at events like the ITF that the camera is focused on your hands more than anything else. People can relate where your hands are moving to with what they're hearing."

Wadams' other commitments include presenting 95bFM's True School hip-hop show (Thursday nights from 7) and he has just began fronting M2's Full Clip, which screens on TV2 in the wee small hours of Saturday.

"TV is funny," laughs Wadams. "It's pretty hardcore. I have to do it live at 4 in the morning. I'm not complaining because we haven't had anywhere to screen rap videos on TV for ages. So to be able to do that for an hour a week is pretty cool. I know what it's like to be watching a genre-specific show, like a hip-hop show, being presented by someone who may not have a knowledge of the genre. I put a lot of pressure on myself to do a good job and make sure that anything I say is informed, but at the same time be entertaining because I don't take it too seriously."

But Wadams' priority for the next few months will be finishing his debut album, which will be released early next year through Kog Transmissions.

"It's shaping up to be a pretty hardcore affair," he says. "It's pretty aggressive in delivery and beats. It's harder than a lot of stuff that has come out of here, but I like that. It's straight up hip-hop. Just beats and rhymes."

Wadams contributed beats to four tracks on Che-Fu's new album, The Navigator, and also spins turntables in singer-rapper band the Krates. He cites the recent album release gig for The Navigator at the St James as a personal highlight.

"It's cool hearing my tracks played live by a band. At first, I wasn't sure if I wanted my stuff played live by a band, because that's not how I write the songs, but we've managed to pull it off.

"It was the best feeling, rocking a live set which was made up of the new album. The crowd for the most part had never heard any of the album before, so it was really great having people react in such a positive way, cheering and screaming to a bunch of new music that they hadn't heard before.

"It was the debut performance of my tracks and it was excellent hearing them big and loud. A special little moment."

* P-Money plays 33/45 (a hip-hop vs drum'n'bass night). Fu/Fu Bar, Saturday, November 3. He tours with Che-Fu and the Krates next month and will be appearing at the Big Day Out.